In the 10 months since setting a new world record that redefines what the 400m hurdles are capable of, Sidney McLaughlin-LeBron has raced outdoors only once, and not since August.

That void was filled by predictions about what the still-23-year-old sprinter would do. can Especially if she adds new events.

The wait ended in Paris on Friday. New Jersey native McLaughlin LeBron, who trained primarily in Los Angeles under coach Bobby Kersey for two years, ran the 400 meters in 49.17 seconds.

Faith Kipyegon in the women’s 1,500m steeplechase, Ramecha Girma in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase and Jakob Ingebrigssen in the men’s 2-mile hurdle set the fastest times during the Diamond League, the most watched circuit in the world of sport, in Paris. bottom. McLaughlin’s second-place finish was equally interesting. It was a preview of what could be the second chapter of a career that already boasts two Olympic gold medals and three world championships.

“I was so happy,” Kersey said in a telephone interview with the Los Angeles Times after the race. “She did exactly what I asked her to do and what she did not work. I know what I can do to fix it and prepare her for her national championship.” I have.”

Thanks to last summer’s World Championship title, McLaughlin-Levrone earned automatic qualification for the 400 hurdles at the next World Championships in Hungary in August. Carthy said early next week will tell us how well she’s recovered and whether McLaughlin-Levrone will be back before the U.S. Championships from July 6-9. With her automatic bid in their back pocket, Kersey is focused on challenging McLaughlin-LeBron in the 400m this summer, opening up the possibility of competing in both. McLaughlin-Levrone told reporters in Paris on Wednesday that she had not yet decided whether to run both at the world championships.

That buildup, and the lack of opportunities to see her race, is what makes Friday her much-anticipated debut.

“I achieved sub 50 for the first time, [personal record]And I’m happy that she went out as hard as she did for me,” said Kersey.

From 2021 onwards, only 10 women have run faster than McLaughlin-Levrone’s opener Friday in the 400s, a period that includes the Olympics and World Championships, and theoretically the World Championships. Leaving her among the selected class of athletes with times capable of reaching the final. She sprinted through the first half of the race, but was eventually caught up by Olympic and world silver medalist Marileidi Paulino.

Edwin Moses, the famous 400m hurdler who won 122 times in a row from 1977 to 1987, said watching the race from his home reminded him of the Open 400m he raced in Belgium in 1977. .

The lesson, he said, was that there’s a clear difference between events at the same distance but “biomechanically very different animals.” Hurdles focus not only on speed, but also on precision, such as the number of steps between hurdles and the proper technique to land over the hurdles. The Open 400 is all about flipping your foot as quickly as possible and maintaining it. According to Moses, it can cause different levels of fatigue.

“It’s going to be a great workout for the 400 hurdles because she’s going to go through the sort of fatigue that she went through between the 9th and 10th hurdles, so that’s the positive side. It means she could run a race that felt like her.” She will feel the 400 hurdles,” Moses said. “If she keeps running the 400 hurdles, that could be a big plus for her.”

Friday’s McLaughlin-Levrone season-opener will highlight her potential in the open 400m, the grip that existing 400m experts still have in the event, and what she must overcome for a record challenge. He gave reasons for being optimistic about the technological gaps that must be overcome.

“I just finished talking to her and she seems to feel the difference between the 400 hurdles and the 400 hurdles,” Kersey said. “And it gives her something to keep her head organized during her practice and understanding her technical differences in what she has to do in the late stages of the race in the open 400 meters and the 400 hurdles. That’s it.”

Some in the sport and Kasee’s training group believe Marita Koch’s 1985 world record of 47.60 seconds (no one has ever beaten within half a second) could one day be achieved. That optimism partly stems from her 47.91-second leg. According to statistician Mark Butler, the 4x400m relay, which won the gold medal for the United States at the World Championships in July, was the seventh fastest women’s relay split ever.

In May, McLaughlin-LeBron said his first thought after setting a new 400 hurdles world record of 50.68 seconds last summer was excruciating pain. One of her next emotions was relief. She was feeling intense scrutiny and anticipation heading into her last year’s championships after setting her world record just weeks earlier.

“When I got over the mental hurdle of getting through that race, it was like a win,” she said.

Her race on Friday showed just how much publicity she can get ahead of the world championships in August. McLaughlin-LeBron ultimately wants to define herself against her own expectations, she said.

“Obviously people are looking at the 400m record and maybe moving to shorter distances, moving to 200m and so on,” McLaughlin LeBron said in May. “But to be honest, I just want to run and see how fast I can run every day. , for me it’s a mental hurdle, I don’t want to do this all the time, but I’m going to do this, I’ve been able to push myself to do things I thought I couldn’t do.

“It sounds like a very generic answer, but this is the honest truth. and I don’t want to do that.”